Embers of the Windy City: Chilling Chicago Ghost Tours

Embers of the Windy City: Chilling Chicago Ghost Tours is a one-hour after-dark walking tour of the Lincoln Park neighborhood, from $26 per person at our July 30, 2026 check. The operator is Windy City Ghosts by US Ghost Adventures, a national ghost-tour company trading under a local brand name, not an independent Chicago outfit. The listing names five points on the route, including the Red Lion Pub, the Biograph Theatre and Oz Park, and flags every one as a place the group walks past rather than enters. At one hour it is the shortest of the fifteen Chicago listings in our research, and at $26 it carries the lowest from-price of the guided ones we could price; only two self-guided phone tours cost less. It suits a short first evening out.

What you will see

The Red Lion Pub at 2446 N. Lincoln Avenue is the route's headline haunted address, and the honest version starts with a demolition. A building went up on that lot in 1880 or 1882, sources disagree, and later held a grocery, a laundry and a bar called Dirty Dan's. John Cordwell bought it in 1984 and opened it as an English pub. Every ghost story told here belongs to that structure: the woman said to have died upstairs on her twentieth birthday, the lavender smell, the furniture dragged across an empty room. It came down in 2008, and the pub trading now is a new building opened in 2014 on the same lot by Cordwell's son Colin. No death record, coroner's file or newspaper report sits behind any of them, and they enter print in the 1980s and 1990s, not the nineteenth century. The documented history is better: Cordwell forged papers at Stalag Luft III for the Great Escape after more than three years as a prisoner of war, later served as Chicago's city planning commissioner under Mayor Martin Kennelly, and died in 1999. Those facts come from DNAinfo Chicago's April 2014 reporting and the Chicago Bar Project.

The Biograph Theatre at 2433 to 2443 N. Lincoln Avenue is a documented crime scene, and the city's landmark report is the source. Construction began in May 1914; the theater opened that September, designed by Samuel N. Crowen, and the marquee standing today went up in 1933 (Commission on Chicago Landmarks). On July 22, 1934, John Dillinger walked out of a showing of Manhattan Melodrama; agents and police fired five shots at the alley just south of the building, two hit him, and he collapsed there and died on the way to hospital. Three details in the usual narration are wrong. Anna Sage was not the Lady in Red: she told agents she would wear a red or, as she later put it, dark orange dress; the press coined the nickname. Melvin Purvis gave the signal but did not fire. And the seat pointed out for years as Dillinger's was a prop, which owner Jack Cooney conceded in 1967: "Naturally, we don't have any idea what seat he sat in." It was designated a Chicago Landmark on March 28, 2001, and Victory Gardens Theater bought it in July 2004 and reopened it in 2006 as a live theater with a 299-seat mainstage.

Oz Park at 2021 N. Burling Street is the stop where the honest answer is that there is no ghost story. The Chicago Park District acquired the site in 1975 (13 acres then, 14.40 now) and named it in 1976 for L. Frank Baum. John Kearney's sculptures arrived in stages: the Tin Man in October 1995, the Cowardly Lion in May 2001, the Scarecrow in June 2005, and Dorothy and Toto in spring 2007. A neighborhood advisory council commissioned them, so they are Kearney's own work, not film memorabilia. Baum never lived here: he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1899 and 1900 at 1667 N. Humboldt Boulevard, several miles west, where a yellow brick sidewalk was laid in 2019 to mark the address. Ghost tour copy borrows the Chicago City Cemetery story for this park; it does not belong here. That ground ran roughly 57 acres north from North Avenue between Clark Street and the lake, several blocks away, and Pamela Bannos's Northwestern University research on the graves left behind concerns Lincoln Park and the Gold Coast.

The two remaining points are Julia Porter Park and the Alphawood Foundation, and we found no documented history or ghost record for either, so this page claims nothing about them. Worth knowing before you book: the listing's summary promises supposedly haunted former burial grounds, and none of the five points it names is one. The City Cemetery ground and the Couch Tomb sit in the southeast corner of Lincoln Park, and are not on this route.

Who it suits

This is one hour on foot after dark from the Lincoln Park neighborhood. The listing states wheelchair accessibility and carries a single adult age band running 0 to 99, so no minimum age is stated, and $26 is the lowest from-price among the guided Chicago walks we priced. The trade-off is that it is short, everything is seen from the pavement, and confirmation takes up to 48 hours.

• Skip it if you want a long evening. One hour is the shortest of the fifteen Chicago listings in our research.
• Skip it if you want to go inside anywhere. Every point is flagged as a pass-by, so the Red Lion Pub is a building you look at, not a drink stop.
• Skip it if you need same-day confirmation. This one confirms within 48 hours.
• Skip it if you want an equipment-led ghost hunt. Nothing of that kind is listed.
• Good for a short first night out, or for the Dillinger story told where it happened.

How it compares

The nearest comparison is Haunted Chicago Booze and Boos Ghost Walking Tour from Nightly Spirits, $35.87 for two and a half hours, 4.9 across 315 reviews. It walks the same three landmarks as pass-bys and adds three bars you do enter, but its adult age band starts at 21 and its listing says it is not wheelchair accessible. Chicago Hauntings Original Ghost Bus Tour is the seated option at $59 for three hours, and it carries the lowest rating in our Chicago set, 3.8 from 150 reviews.

One caution about the field. The most reviewed Chicago ghost tour in our research, Gangsters and Ghosts at 4.8 across 7,177 reviews, showed as out of stock on July 30, 2026, so it may not be bookable when you look. For the full comparison, see Chicago ghost tours compared and our list of the best haunted ghost tours in Chicago.

Questions people ask

How long is it and what does it cost?

One hour, from $26 per person at our July 30, 2026 check. Prices move, so confirm on the booking page.

Who runs this tour?

Windy City Ghosts by US Ghost Adventures, a national ghost-tour company operating under a local brand name. We do not run it.

Do you go inside the Red Lion Pub?

No. The listing flags all five named points as places the group passes rather than enters, so the pub is a building you see from the pavement.

Is the seat John Dillinger sat in still in the Biograph?

There is no such seat. One was pointed out for years, until owner Jack Cooney conceded in 1967 that nobody knew where he sat.

Is Oz Park haunted?

Not in any documented sense. The old Chicago City Cemetery ground that ghost tours borrow for this park lies several blocks away.

How soon is it confirmed, and is it wheelchair accessible?

Confirmation comes within 48 hours rather than instantly, so book ahead. The listing states the tour is wheelchair accessible; stroller access was not captured at our check.